English for the World of Work

The Teaching/Learning Unit: ELECTRIC MACHINES

Purpose of the unit: to familiarize the students with the basic principles, the
notions and the English vocabulary that will enable them to tackle the subject
successfully when they come to it, in the 12th grade.
Time allocated: The unit was devised for a two-hour class / unconventional lesson.

A. Basic Principles: Generators vs. motors

I. Prequestions

1. Do you know how electricity is produced?

2. Mention some conventional or/and alternative (non-conventional) sources of
energy.
3. How important are electric motors in our everyday life? How do we use
them?

II. Access to text

Read the definitions and try to answer the following questions:

1. What is the difference between AC (alternating current ) and DC (direct

current)?
2. Define ‘electromagnetic induction’.
3. What’s a dynamo?
4. What is an electric motor?
5. What is the difference between an electric motor and a generator?

Definitions:
1. AC (alternating current) = “an electric current that reverses its direction many
times a second at regular intervals, typically used in power supplies”.
2. DC (direct current) = “an electric current flowing in one direction only”.
3. motor - electric motor = “a device that changes power into movement, used
to make machines work”; a device that changes electric power into movement.
4. electric generator = “machine for producing electric energy / dynamo or
similar machine for converting mechanical energy into electricity”.
5. electromagnetic = “having both electrical and magnetic properties / of or
relating to the interrelation of electric currents or fields and magnetic fields”.
6. induction = the production of an electric or magnetic state by the proximity (
with-out contact) of an electrified or magnetized body”/ “ the production of an
electric current in a conductor by varying the magnetic field applied to the
conductor”.